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Wednesday, February 10, 2010

On Monday and Tuesday of this week, I visited the high school where I used to teach English. The ESL had teacher invited me to work with her students. Each day I visited two classes, both small and with kids from a variety of countries, such as Russia, China, Iran, Korea, and El Salvador. We wrote poems and had a great time.

I also visited the International Club after school. The teacher had asked me to read some love poems to them since Valentine's Day is close. I read six poems and then took the group through a quick activity to produce a love poem of their own. We had around 20 kids at this meeting and 3 teachers. The activity took under 10 minutes and produced some really amazing poems. I patterned it loosely after Cecilia Woloch's "Blazon," so it employs anaphora and lots of metaphors. Perhaps you'd like to try it yourself.

Begin 8 lines with “You are my . . . "

Now add the metaphors to complete each line:

1. a dessert (e.g., You are my crème brûlée.)

2. beverage

3. bird

4. jewel

5. tree

6. flower

7. body of water

8. Now repeat line #1 but with an addition (e.g., You are my crème brûlée, my jiggly pudding, my sweet sugar topping).

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About Me

I live and write poetry in New Jersey. My most recent book is The Crafty Poet: A Portable Workshop. I am also the author of three full-length books, most recently Temptation by Water (Wind Pub, 2010). My second collection, What Feeds Us, received the 2006 Quentin R. Howard Poetry Prize. I am also the author of Eve's Red Dress and two chapbooks, Against Perfection and Greatest Hits 1997-2010. My poems appear in a number of anthologies such as Garrison Keillor's Good Poems for Hard Times and in such journals as Harvard Review, Spoon River Poetry Review, and Prairie Schooner. My poems have been featured on Poetry Daily, Verse Daily, and The Writer’s Almanac.